


Cold and Darkness

by LyriaBlackFrost



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, May be interpreted as romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 03:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11221962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyriaBlackFrost/pseuds/LyriaBlackFrost
Summary: Some time after being defeated, Pitch meets Jack Frost close to a frozen lake, and, for some reason, the boy doesn't treat him like an enemy.





	Cold and Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> This is a revised repost from FF.net. Actually, the first fic I had the courage to publish there... I feel emotional. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Until that moment, he hadn't realized how the darkness could be sad and cold.

Pitch was sitting in front of that frozen lake, golden eyes fixed on the blue-white ice, even though his thoughts were far, far away from that place.

He had been defeated.

He had been defeated by his own fear of not being recognized, of being forgotten.

“No, fear will always exist,” he muttered to himself. “No matter how beautiful dreams are, they could never last forever. And that's when the nightmares come...”

He interrupted himself mid-sentence. After all, didn't the nightmares share the same fate of the dreams? Sooner or later, they would also disappear, giving place to the dreams, the hope, the sweet memories, the wonder, and...

A noise behind Pitch made him look over his shoulder, and he found himself unable to say whether or not he was surprised by what he saw.

“This is the last place I expected to find you, Pitch.” Jack frost said, leaning on his wooden staff, with that so typical carefree expression on his face.

Pitch didn't answer, fixing his gaze on the emptiness once again. Realizing that he wouldn't have an answer, Jack Frost went closer to Pitch, standing beside him, looking at that same frozen lake. Both were silent for some time.

“Why did you come here?” Pitch asked, finally “What do you want with me, Frost?”

“And who said I came here because of you?” He shrugged. “This place is...” His voice was lower than before. “Important to me, I guess.”

Pitch didn't comment, nor asked the reason of that sentence. Still, Jack continued.

“This is the place where I died.” he said “But it’s also the place where I was born as Jack Frost.” Absently, Jack frozen surface with his staff, and there, he began to create patterns with delicate ice crystals. “It's hard for me to decide if I like here or not.”

“Hating it would be the most natural,” said Pitch. “This is where you lost everything you had, and all the ones you loved...”

“No, you're wrong,” Jack interrupted, without raising his voice. “It was here that I saved a person I loved above anything else, and that's the reason why the Man in the Moon has chosen me.”

The mention of that name made Pitch stand up, facing the boy with an expression filled with fury. If he wasn't so weak at the moment, that would have been a scary sight.

“And erased all of your memories?” He said, loudly. “How can you thrust the Man in the Moon after all he did? How can you stay alongside those guardians, when they all have turned their backs on you? And how could you have become one of them...? I thought...

A brief pause. Jack and Pitch stared silently at each other for a few moments, and then the older one sat on the ground once again, a defeated expression on his face.

“I thought we were the same, Jack.” He muttered. “That with your help, all children would believe on us, that, finally, we wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

Jack tried to answer, but before he could, Pitch continued:

“But I was wrong. We are too different.”

Jack Frost gazed at the frozen lake, now filled with drawings formed by his ice crystals.

“We were never that different, Pitch,” he said. “The only difference is that I, despite wanting to be seen and recognized more than anything, didn't want that to happen because of fear. It's in my center to make people have fun, so even if the kids don't believe in me, as long as they are happy and smiling, everything is fine.

“I don't understand, Frost. What is so good in being nobody? Easy for you to say these things, since now you have everything you wanted: they believe in you, and you even have your memories back... As for me, I have nothing.”

“Your memories... Never came back?” Asked Jack. “Even after having found your teeth?”

“No.” replied Pitch “They were all here, in my hands, but still, nothing came... There was nothing but darkness in my memory.”

Jack looked away without saying anything. He knew the pain Pitch was feeling too well, the pain of not knowing who you are, of having no one by your side.

“You know... I believe in you, Pitch.” He said, suddenly.

Pitch stared at him, confused by that unexpected sentence.

“When I drowned in the lake, everything was dark and cold... And I was really scared, as if I was in a nightmare.” Jack continued. “I know what fear is, and so, I know you’re real.”

“So, do you fear me?”

“No. I'm not afraid of you.” Jack smiled slightly. “But there's no need to fear something to acknowledge its existence.”

Pitch said nothing, but those words had, somehow, moved him. But he soon pushed such thoughts from his mind.

“Why are you saying things like that?” He asked “We are enemies, remember?”

“Because I know how it feels to be all alone,” replied Frost “And so, I want to help you.”

With such words, Jack stood before Pitch, and grinned at him.

“Let's be friends, Pitch!” He suggested. “So you won't fell lonely any longer.”

Pitch stared at him with disbelief. Jack, however, didn't seem to be joking.

“You surely make something like that sound easy,” he said in a low voice.

Jack, however, didn't give up.

“Or, maybe, having friends is easy, but it is you who makes things harder… Or is it too difficult for you to say 'let's be friends, Jack'?”

Pitch found himself unable to retort, and eventually allowed a slight and rare smile to appear on his face. However, as fast as it appeared, it also dissolved amid his own thoughts.

“We could have done amazing things together...” He said. “It's a shame that you've chosen the side of the Guardians. There is no place for the darkness among your light.”

Jack twisted his lips, somewhat annoyed. He was starting to get impatient with all that negativity. Sighing loudly, he walked back a few steps, sitting on the ground, starting to play with the snow, and then, suddenly, he seemed to find a solution to that problem.

“Maybe there is something other than darkness in you!” He said, a bright and cheerful smile on his face.

“What did you say?” Pitch frowned, confused.

“Maybe you're not so different from us!” Continued Jack, jumping on his feet “Everything you need to know is how to achieve you own center.”

“My center is the fear.” Pitch interrupted.

“But it could be more than that!” Jack insisted. “I used to think all I could do was play tricks and freeze pipes... I never imagined that I could become a Guardian someday, but still, I became one!”

“It’s different...”

“No, it's not!”

“Of course it is!”

Pitch got up, and without another word, began to move away from there. Jack rolled his eyes, but soon, he had his typical mischievous smile on his face.

“I think all you need is a little fun.”

Before Pitch could say anything, or at least turn to face Jack, a huge snowball hit him on the back of his head. He stared at Jack, furious, while he laughed playfully.

“What do you think you are doing, Frost?”

“I'm having fun. Why don't you try doing the same?”

Pitch began to move away again, but something stopped him: he couldn't possibly let that kid have fun at his expense like that.

“I'm going to wipe that smile off your face...” He said, and then bent down, picking up a large amount of snow in his hands, throwing it against Jack, who easily deflected.

“You need to improve that aim...” laughed the boy.

“I won’t miss next time.”

Pitch kept trying, in vain, to hit Jack, who in turn, got him in almost all of his attempts.

“Don't you think this is the end, Frost!” Pitch said, and then, finally, he hit Jack in the back.

Caught by surprise, Jack staggered and almost fell. Pitch, in turn, smiled with a triumphant expression.

“What did you think of that, little snow spirit?” He asked, sounding victorious.

“Yeah... Not bad.” Jack shrugged. “But still not as good as me.”

Pitch frowned, and quickly began to throw more snowballs against Jack, who didn't fail to fight back. Thus, the minutes passed, and soon, became hours. Only when he fell back on the ground, exhausted after all that, Pitch noticed something that shocked him: he was smiling.

Not that usual smirk, or even that sad half-smile from just before... But a real smile, like the ones he always saw on the faces of children while they were playing and enjoying themselves.

“What have you done to me?” He asked, unable to understand what was happening.

With a satisfied expression on his face, Jack laid on the ground next to him.

“I didn't do anything, just threw some snowballs,” he answered. “But it was fun, wasn't it?”

“I... Yes, I think so.”

They stayed that way for a while, without saying anything, just recovering their breath. Pitch looked absently at that clear sky, and was surprised to realize that, in his mind, the shadows that covered his memories seemed less dark and dense than before.

“I remember... A girl,” he said “She was the most important thing to me.”

Hearing that, Jack looked at him, intrigued.

“I missed her so much...” He continued. “All I wanted was to see her again.”

“You loved her, didn't you?” Jack asked, remembering his own sister. “Don't you think this feeling is proof enough that there is something other than darkness inside of you?”

Pitch thought about those words.

“Maybe... You are right.” He replied, slowly closing his eyes.

 

~*~

 

After finally being recovered from that exhaustive snowball fight, Pitch and Jack left that place, walking just a few steps away from each other.

“It was a strange coincidence, for us to meet again.” Said Pitch.

Suddenly, Jack stopped walking. Looking at him, Pitch noticed that he seemed embarrassed for some reason.

“Yeah, I was a little surprised to see you here, from all places, but... Actually...” He gave a brief, awkward, chuckle. “It's been a while that I've been looking for you.”

“Looking for me...?”

“Well...” Jack leaned on his staff, and looked around, only to avoid Pitch’s eyes. “After that conversation we had about cold and darkness and stuff, I realized that if I can be more than 'cold', you could also be more than 'darkness', and therefore, you didn't really need to be the bad and lonely guy, or something like that... “ He began to stumble over his words, and so gave a half smile. “But in the end, it was kind of awkward to say it, so I just pretended everything was a coincidence.”

Pitch's eyes widened by hearing that.

“So... For all this time... You were worried about...?”

“Yeah... That's it.” Jack interrupted him, and began to walk at a brisk pace “Anyway, my plan worked out in the end, so it's alright.”

Before he could go farther, Pitch grabbed Jack's arm, and, to the boy's surprise, embraced him.

“Is this what they call 'having a friend'?” He asked in a low voice.

“Eh...?” Stammered Jack, who wasn't yet accustomed to receiving hugs like that “Ah... I think so...”

“So, it's a great feeling.”

Having said such words, Pitch smiled, and soon, Jack did the same, eventually returning that hug.

“You are cold.” Commented Pitch.

“I'm Jack 'Frost', what did you expect?” Jack replied shortly after. “If me being cold bothers you, feel free to let go.”

Pitch looked thoughtful for a moment.

“No, I have nothing against the cold.”

“Does it mean that you won't let go of me anymore?” Jack laughed.

Pitch didn't answer, and worse, seemed to be in deep thoughts, something that worried Jack a little.

“Pitch, you're not planning on staying hugged with me forever, right?”

That question brought Pitch back from his thoughts.

“Oh no... Of course not.”

Saying this, he finally let go from Jack, who looked at him, a little confused.

“Is something wrong?” asked him.

“No, it's alright.”

“Oh... Okay.” Jack answered, sounding a little suspicious “If everything is fine, then let's move on.”

Pitch agreed, and soon they began to walk next to each other again.

However, Pitch seemed bothered. Time after time, he looked through the corner of his eyes to Jack, and time after time, he tried to say something, but stopped himself.

“Are you sure nothing's wrong?” Jack asked once again.

“Actually, I was thinking...” Pitch looked away, as if embarrassed. “May I hold your hand?”

“My hand…?” Jack frowned, surprised by that question. But the surprise soon gave way to a low chuckle, and he reached to the other. “Go ahead.”

A little hesitant, Pitch held his hand, and they resumed their walk.

And, at that moment, Pitch realized that, much more than to be recognized, that cold touch was everything he really needed.


End file.
